Jan. 1

December 29, 1985|By Paul Gapp.

The centennial year of the skyscraper begins. In 1885, the Home Insurance Building was built in Chicago on a design by William Le Baron Jenney. The 10- story office structure at 135 S. La Salle St. was the first in the world with an all-metal frame. Buildings thus supported by their skeletons instead of their walls could be built to almost any height, which cleared the way for the giant skyscrapers of the 20th Century.

JAN. 28

Stanley Tigerman, of Tigerman Fugman & McCurry, is named director of the School of Architecture at the University of Illinois in Chicago. Tigerman, an internationally recognized Postmodernist, succeeds Thomas Hall Beeby, who is appointed dean of the Yale University School of Architecture. Beeby is a much- honored principal partner in the firm of Hammond Beeby and Babka.

MARCH 1

Olgivanna Wright, 87, widow of architect Frank Lloyd Wright, dies in Scottsdale, Ariz. She and Wright had wed in 1928 (it was his third marriage), and Mrs. Wright afterward became memorable largely for her imperious ways and the uncharacteristic deference Wright paid to her.

MARCH 6

Ira J. Bach dies at the age of 78 after several decades of service to the city. Trained as an architect, Bach became Chicago`s first director of city planning when Mayor Richard J. Daley elevated that position to cabinet status. He later served as chairman of the Commission on Chicago Historical and Architectural Landmarks. Bach`s architectural guidebooks were familiar to every Chicago building buff.

MARCH 25

Frank Lloyd Wright`s remains, interred near his architectural settlement of Taliesin at Spring Green, Wis., are exhumed, cremated and sent to Taliesin West in Scottsdale, Ariz., in accord with instructions issued by Olgivanna Wright not long before her death. Digging up the original grave raises a furor among some members of Wright`s family and former associates, and the Wisconsin State Senate passes a resolution condemning it. But the widow`s orders prevail, even after death.

APRIL 3

Austrian Hans Hollein wins the $100,000 Pritzker Architectural Prize. Hollein is best known for his design of European museums. The Pritzer jury calls him ``an architect who is also an artist.``

MAY 6

The Helmut Jahn-designed State of Illinois Center is officially dedicated after already having become the most controversial building ever constructed in downtown Chicago.

MAY 22

Chicago architect Charles F. Murphy, Sr., 94, dies after a career that began with his employment in the firm of Daniel Burnham and extended into the post-World War II era dominated by the International Style. Murphy was a principal partner in a succession of variously named Chicago design firms and played a role in the design of O`Hare Airport, the Prudential Building and many other major Chicago structures.

JUNE 13

I.M. Pei of New York, James Stirling of London and Kenzo Tange of Tokyo receive the annual Chicago Architecture Award sponsored by the Illinois Council of the American Institute of Architects and Architectural Record magazine.

SEPT. 6

Chicago`s Museum of Contemporary Art announces it will show the huge Mies van der Rohe exhibit assembled by New York`s Museum of Modern Art for display in 1986, the centennial of Mies`s birth. Among other Chicago exhibits and tributes to Mies are those planned by the Illinois Institute of Technology and the Art Institute.

SEPT. 10

Illinois Institute of Technology officials attract national attention when they tear down a rainbow-hued steel canopy immediately after it is added to an IIT library building. The canopy, designed by 31-year-old architect Donald Nevel, contrasted sharply with the many black buildings designed by Mies on the campus. It was thus considered heretical by the likes of George Schipporeit, chairman of IIT`s architecture school.

OCT. 1

The ``150 Years of Chicago Architecture`` exhibit opens at the Museum of Science and Industry for a run through Jan. 15. It is the largest and most spectacular such display within anyone`s memory, offering 6,000 photographs, 100 models, 400 drawings, furniture and other attractions.

OCT. 22

Chicago architect Philip Will Jr., 79, dies at his home in Venice, Fla. Will was cofounder of Perkins & Will, one of the nation`s best-known architecture firms. His distinguished school designs brought him many honors, and his firm was responsible for skyscrapers ranging from the Standard Oil Building to the First National Bank of Chicago.

NOV. 13

William Pereira, 76, dies in Los Angeles after a long architectural career that began with his 1937 Art Deco design of the Esquire Theater at 58 E. Oak St. in Chicago. Pereira did most of his work on the West Coast, and was best known for his pyramidical-topped Transamerica Building in San Francisco.